Cheng Lei and his daughter Rinko Lei arrive at a closed Department of Motor Vehicles office on Fell Street in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010 after visiting San Mateo and Daily City offices to file paperwork before its expiration date. The Fell Street DMV office had 20 of 34 staffers who decided to take Monday, Aug. 23, 2010 off following from being forced to take the previous Friday off unpaid. In San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010.

If you are among the millions of California vehicle owners who got a late registration renewal notice this summer because of the Legislature's bickering over the state budget, beware: Miss your payment by as little as one day and you will be socked with huge penalties that normally wouldn't kick in until you were 31 days late.

The Department of Motor Vehicles says it will not waive penalties for drivers who might have misunderstood or overlooked the confusing special notice it sent out with the late renewal statements.

The background: Normally, vehicle owners get their renewal statement about 60 days before the due date. But in early May, the DMV stopped sending out renewals because lawmakers couldn't decide whether to let a temporary vehicle license fee surcharge expire as scheduled on June 30.

On June 30, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a budget bill allowing the surcharge to expire. On July 1, the DMV resumed sending out renewals, but the billing disruption meant that more than 4 million renewal notices went out late.

Everyone whose payments were due in July or August got less than the usual 60 days notice. Some people whose payments were due in early July did not receive their statements until after the due date.

Rather than changing due dates to give everyone 60 days notice, the DMV sent out renewals with the original due dates and slipped a little "special notice" into the envelope. It says: "Pay fees within 30-days of the DUE DATE to avoid penalties. After the 30-day grace period, penalties will be due."

What it didn't make clear was that penalties will be assessed from the original due date, not the end of the grace period.

People who pay one day after the grace period are considered 31 days past due. This can result in penalty shock because the late fees ratchet up sharply the later you get.

Let's talk penalties

According to a chart on the DMV's website, they are:

-- 10 percent of the vehicle license fee if you are one to 10 days late.

-- 20 percent of the license fee if you are 11 to 30 days late.

-- 60 percent of the license fee if you are 31 days to one year late.

There are additional late fees - displayed elsewhere on the DMV's website - that add up to $20 per vehicle if you are one to 10 days late, $30 if you are 11 to 30 days late and $60 if you are 31 days to one year late.

Paula Park of Santa Rosa received her renewal notice July 8. The due date was July 2. "I opened it two weeks after receiving it, based on 35 years of receiving a 60-days heads-up," she says.

When she went online to pay her bill Aug. 9, she was astonished to find that in addition to $179 in regular renewal charges, she had to pay $108 in late fees.

"I am a computer professional and I believe they changed the grace period by adding 30 days onto the due date in the computer software. However, no one realized the three-tier late-fee structure due dates would also have to be changed. Or maybe they did realize it" and still didn't change them, Park says.

Last week, Park contacted her state senator, Noreen Evans, whose office assigned a caseworker to look into the situation.

Tom Roth, a spokesman for Evans, says the senator "does believe this is a situation with a number of questions that need to be answered (by the DMV). So far we have not been able to reach them and we will continue to do so until we get a response. The only thing that is really clear is that DMV communication with drivers has been, at the least, confusing."

Paying by mail

People paying by mail, rather than online, might have a hard time knowing which late fees, if any, to include because the special notice includes a matrix of penalties. DMV posted a copy of the special notice at sfg.ly/qajiNz.

Last week, on the same webpage, an explanation of the special notice said: "NOTE: The late payment penalty amounts described on the notices do not apply."

DMV spokesman Jaime Garza says the note applied to people paying within the grace period but he agreed it was confusing and DMV subsequently removed it.

Garza admits that the DMV's communication could be better.

But he adds, "To date, the majority of DMV customers have not had any trouble understanding this process and those who mistakenly sent in their renewals (within the grace period) with late fees attached are receiving refunds."

He could not say what will happen to people who send in their renewals with insufficient late penalties. Garza says people with questions should call (800) 777-0133 before sending in their payments.

One vehicle owner said she got faster service on this issue by tweeting @CA_DMV.

Fox says the DMV should be "more flexible and reasonable" with late fees. "What is really important in these situations is transparency, especially when you are dealing with a new policy. The burden is clearly on the DMV. They should inform people in a way that your average consumer can understand it. Adding a slip of paper that can literally fall through the cracks is not enough."